Gyroscopic apparatus for the direction of self-propelled torpedoes.



E. SCHNEIDER.

GYROSCOPI'C APPARATUS FOR THE DIRECTION OF SELF PROPELLED TORPEDOES. APPLICATION FILED APR-9.19 15. 1,175,827, Patented Mar. 14,1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

' E. SCHNEIDER.

Patented Mar. 14,1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED sTA Es PATENT OFFICE.

EUGENE SCHNEIDER, OF PARIS, FRANCE.

GYROSCOPIC APPARATUS FOR THE DIRECTION OF SEI.Ji-PROIE'ELLED TOBPEDOES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 14:, 1916.

Application filed. April 9, 1915. Serial No. 20,358.

lowing specification.

As is well known self-propelled torpedoes are controlled by means of gyroscopes. apparatus for the purpose comprises a spinningv mass or gyro-wheel mounted in such a manner as to be adapted to move freely about one of its axes, (either by means of equatorial rings or by any other means) the point of suspension being very near to the general center of gravity of the movable arrangement.

At the beginning of the course of the torpedo, the gyro-wheel is set in motion either by the impulse of a spring or by jets of compressed air acting on turbine blades or buckets (thelatter being carried either by the gyro-wheel itself'or by a separate turbine wheel which is only in contact with the gyro-wheel during the very short period during which the latter wheel is set in motion I The movement of the gyro-wheel in the first constructed apparatus, was not constant; the speed of rotation of the same gradually decreasing owing to the friction of its pivots and air resistance. In proportion to the increased distance traversed by the torpedo, it became necessary to maintain the speed of the gyro-wheel at an adequate value for a longer period of time. An advance has been made in this direction by increasing the initial speed of the gyro-wheel but at the same time the resistance due to air friction increased and assumed very important values at high peripheral speeds of the gyro-wheel. Under these conditions, the initial increase of the speed of rotation was effective only during a very short period of time and the effective period of gyroscopic control did not increase in proportion to the complication and the weight resulting from the adoption of more powerful starting means. It was therefore necessary to restore to the gyro-wheel in a continuous manner, the momentum absorbed by the various frictions and in order to provide continually the power absorbed in this manner, use has been made either of a small electric motor keyed on the axis of the gyro-wheel,

, or of the action of air jets on blades or bucktorpedo would not be insured at all.

ets suitably disposed with respect to the gyro-wheel ;these means for maintaining the movement being either capable or otherwise of being combined with the means used for imparting to the gyro-wheel its initial impulse.

The apparatus forming the subject of the present invention has for its object to proyide improvements in gyroscopic apparatus in which the movement is maintained by means of air jets.

The new apparatus permits of obtaining the following results :1. The arrangement of the apparatus is such that the action of the air jets maintaining the movement, does not produce any undesirable deviation of the gyroscopic apparatus. 2. Moreover, the entire arrangement is such that any inclination of the gyro-wheel with respect to the normal in the central plane of the vertical equatorial circle, is automatically corrected; such an inclination which can arise, for instance, from the friction of the valve controlled by the gyroscopic apparatus has a deleterious effect on the operation of the apparatus as it diminishes the tendency of the same to impose a constant average direction to the torpedo; in the case of an exaggeration of this inclination, the direction of the 11 other words, the new apparatus has for its object to carry out automatically the correction of the position of the axis of the gyrowheel in the case of an inclination, without creating thereby deviations in the torpedo.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a section taken on the central plane of the vertical equatorial ring C. Fig. 2 is a section taken on the plane passing through the axis AB of oscillation of the vertical ring and through the axis XOX of the gyro-wheel.

The vertical carrier ring C oscillates in known manner about pivots carried by the frame G of the apparatus. A conduit J formed in the frame G feeds in accordance with the invention, a circular groove M which is in permanent communication with the horizontal branch K of the elbow conduit K-K the vertical branch of which is pivot C of the vertical ring; the conduit K opens into the conduit L'formed in the thickness of the ring (I, feeding the nozzles formed in the bosses I and I provided in the said vertical ring. Whatever the position of the vertical ring may be, air will reach through the groove M theconduit KK and thence the nozzles from which it will be projected onto the gyro-wheel H; the central external surface of the latter is spherical in shape and buckets are formed on its rim. In accordance with the invention these buckets, the working surface a of which is plane, are also established in such a. manner that the plane of the surface a passes through the axis of the gyro-wheel XOX and the depth p of each bucket is constant throughout the extent of the same.

The upper boss I is located with respect to the movement of the gyro-wheel, laterally of the plane passing through the axis AB of the vertical ring and through the axis XOX of the gyro-wheel so that the average direction z' of the jet leaving the nozzle formed in the boss I passes through the uppermost point N of the average surface of the gyro-wheel; this condition is highly important from the point of view of the effect to be obtained. The nozzle formed in the boss I is located symmetrically with re- 7 spect to the center of the vertical ring and its jet 2" always acts on the lowermost point P of the average surface of the gyro-wheel. The horizontal ring F is'mounted in known manner with respect to the vertical ring C and the gyro-wheel H.

The operation is as follows :The jets of air leaving the nozzles formed in the bosses I and I produce reactions on the vertical ring; which reactions owing to the disposition of the jets in the same symmetrical plane of the vertical ring are operative in the same plane, are absorbed by the pivots of the vertical ring and do not interfere in the least with the operation of the gyroscope.

,On striking the buckets, the air jets produce movements normal to the buckets and as the same are plane and pass through the axis of the gyro-wheel, the action of the air jets can be expressed as a force which is always in the plane of symmetry of the vertical ring. Normally, the points of application of the two equal and opposite forces are the points N and P (the-uppermost and lowermost) and theirv average directions are NQ and P-R horizontal tangents to the circle cut in the central surface of-the gyro-wheel by the plane of symmetry of the vertical ring in which the gyro-wheel is suspended. It will be seen that the forces NQ and P-R have for their effect to maintain the movement of the gyro-wheel by creating a couple around the axis XOX. Moreover, these forces cannot create any undesirable deviation of the gyro-wheel. In fact, by virtue of the properties of rapidly rotating bodies, a rotation of the gyro-wheel around the axis AB could only be produced by fbrces having a certain moment about the axle DE; the forces NQ and PR, how-.

ever, are parallel to DE and it follows that the deviation around the axis AB is always zero. On the contrary, in the case of the inclination of the gyro-wheel as illustrated in Fig. 2, the forces which are projected at N and P on Fig. 2, have a certain moment with respect to the axis SS located in the plane of Fig. 2; it can be seen that this moment is of a nature-to causethe axis XOX to re-assume a position at right angles to the axis AB, without producing a rotation about the axis AB.

With buckets as here shown, if the points of impact of the air jets were not located at the uppermost and lowermost points N and P x while remaining symmetrical, the above result would not be attained in the case of an inclination; the actions on the buckets of the gyro-wheel (actions always located in a plane normal to the axis XOX) .would have a certain moment with respect to the axis DE and this would result, always according to the properties of rapidly rotating bodies, in a deviation about the axis AB of the vertical ring. However if the two points of impact were located on the axis DE of the horizontal ring, there would be no deviation about the axis AB but the automatic correction in the case of an inclination relatively to the horizontal would no longer be produced. What I claim and desire to secure by Let ters Patent of the United States is 1. The combination of a carrier-ring pivoted for movement about a diametral axis, an equatorial ring pivotally mounted on the carrier-ring for movement about a diametral axis perpendicular to the said diametral axis of the carrier-ring, a gyro-wheel supported by the equatorial ring and rotatable about an axis perpendicular to the said diametral axes and provided with peripheral buckets, and nozzles positioned to deliver jets of fluid against the buckets at such points and in such directions that they rotate the gyro-wheel on its axis and tend to hold it against movement about the diametral axis of the equatorial ring.

2. The combination of a carrier-ring pivotedr for movement about a diametral axis, an equatorial ring pivotally mounted on the carrier-ring for movement about a diametral axis perpendicular to the said diametral axis of the carrier-ring, a gyro-wheel supported by the equatorial ring and rotatable about an axis perpendicular to the said diametral axes and provided with peripheral buckets, and nozzles remote from theplanev buckets with-the gyro-wheel in any of a plurality of positions of adjustment about the said diametral axis of the equatorial ring.

axes and provided with transverse pivotal buckets curved inward at their ends and each lying in a plane containing thegyrowheel axis, and nozzles positidned to deliver jets of fluid against the buckets.

4. The combination of a carrier-ring pivoted for movement about a diametral axis, an equatorial ring pivotally mounted on the carrier-ring fcr movement about a diametral axis perpendicular to the said diametral axis of the carrier-ring, a gyro-Wheel sup the carrier-ring for movement about a diametrical axis perpendicular to the said diametral axis of the carrier-ring, a gyro- Wheel supported by the equatorial ring and rotatable about an axis perpendicular to the said diametral axes and provided with transverse pivotal buckets curved inward at their ends, and nozzles positioned to deliver jets of fluid against the buckets at points remote from the said diametral axis of the equatorial ring. j i

6. The combination of a carrier-ring pivoted for movement about a diametral axis, an equatorial ring pivotally mounted on the carrier-ring for movement about a diame tralaxis perpendicular to the said diametral axis of the carrier-ring, a gyro-wheel supported by the equatorial ring and rotatable about an axis perpendicularto the said diametral axes and provided with transverse pivotal buckets curved inward at their ends, andnozzles positioned to deliver jets of fluid against the buckets at points lying in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the equatorial ring and passing through the axis of the gyro-wheel.

7.'The combination of a carrier-ring pivoted for movement about a" diametral axis, an equatorial ring pivotally mounted on the carrier-ring for movement about a diametral axis perpendicular to thesaid diametral axis of the carrier-ring, a gyro wheel supported by the equatorial ring'and rotatable oted for-movement about a diametral axis,

an equatorial ring pivotally mounted on theoarrier ring for movement about a diametral axls perpendicular to the-said diametral axis of the carrier-ring, a gyro-wheel sup-- ported by the equatorial ring and rotatable about an axis perpendicular to the said diametral axes and provided with transverse peripheral buckets curved to conform to a sphere having its center at the intersection of'theafo-resaid axes, and nozzles positioned to deliver jetsof fluid against the buckets at points lying in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the equatorial ring and passing through the axis of the gyro-wheel.

9. The combination of a carrier-ring pivoted for movement about a diametral vaxis, an equatorial ring pivotally mounted on the carrier-ring for movement about a diametral axis erpendicular to the said diametral axis of the carrier ring, a gyro-wheel supported by the equatorial ring and rotatable about an axis perpendicular to both of the said diametral axes and provided with transverse peripheral buckets curved inward at their ends, rand nozzles fixedly mounted on the carrier ring at points remote from the diametral axis of the equatorial: ring axis, an. equatorial ring pivotally mounted on the carrier-ring for movement about a diametral axis perpendicular to the said diametral axis of the carrier ring, a gyro-, wheel supported by the equatorial ring and rotatable about, an axis perpendicular to botho-f the said diametral axes and provided with transverse peripheral buckets curved inward at their ends, and nozzles fixedly mounted 'on the carrier ring and positioned to. deliver jets of fluid against the buckets at points in the said diametral axis of the carrier ring.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two SllbSCIlbing witnesses. 1

EUGENE SCHNEIDER. 

